How to Build an Aero Ice-Racer 



By R. U. Clark 



A small and simple ice-racer, which should attain 

 speeds of from sixty to one hundred miles an 

 hour, according to the power of the engine used 



ILLUSTRATED accounts of several 

 motor - driven ice - boats have ap- 

 peared for some time past in differ- 

 ent publications. The machines depicted 

 have been more or less alike, and prac- 

 tically all have born a close resemblance 

 to an ordinary sled fitted with a motor. 

 In many cases these vehicles have been 

 greatly overpowered, for although some 

 of them have attained to speeds as high 

 as eighty miles an hour, they have ac- 

 complished this with considerable waste 

 of power, principally because of their 

 faulty design, both as regards body 

 shape and propelling mechanism. 



In designing any high speed vehicle 

 the body and all the external parts 

 should approximate a pure streamline 

 form as nearly as possible. This fact 

 has been thoroughly demonstrated dur- 

 ing the past few years in the case of the 

 aeroplane, and during the past season 

 has been forcibly illustrated at the auto 

 races. In the case of the motor-driven 

 ice-boat, the necessity of a streamline 

 body is far more apparent when it is 

 considered that more than 95% of the 

 tractile power is consumed in overcom- 

 ing the resistance of the wind where 

 traction is secured by direct aerial 

 drive. 



In addition to being essential to high 



speed, a closed-in ice-boat body affords 

 a very necessary protection from the 

 cold and wind, which alone would be 

 reason enough for constructing such a 

 vehicle along these lines. It therefore 

 seems strange that, in spite of these 

 facts, people should think a wooden 

 cross equipped with runners and a 

 motor, a fit apology for a motor ice- 

 boat, but this is probably due to the fact 

 that the advantages of closed-in con- 

 struction are not fully realized, and con- 

 sequently the builder does not care to 

 take the time to build a decent body. 



A motor ice-boat to be worth while 

 should combine the following features : 

 Strength, lightness, cheapness, proper 

 streamline form, complete protection 

 from the wind, and abo\e all ease of 

 construction. Fortunately it is a very 

 simple matter to design and build such 

 a body, as will be at once apparent after 

 a glance at the illustrations submitted 

 herewith. As will be noticed from these 

 sketches there are two possible seating 

 arrangements which allow of simple 

 streamline body construction. The ma- 

 chine depicted in Fig. \, with the motor 

 at the rear, is designed primarily for 

 use as a single jiassenger machine, in 

 which case the body need not be over 

 five feet long, by about twenty inches 



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